Walking Tour - Clerkenwell's Monastic Quarter

19jun14:0016:30Walking Tour - Clerkenwell's Monastic QuarterWalks Festival14:00 - 16:30 GuideIslington Guided Walks

Event Details

Medieval to modern – the monasteries of Clerkenwell and their legacy today.

In medieval times Clerkenwell was an area of fields on the outskirts of the City of London, dominated by monastic institutions. The monasteries were all closed in the 1530s when Henry VIII broke with the Church of Rome but their buildings remained. Some were demolished but others were repurposed and rebuilt over the years; many of them still play a philanthropic and caring role today.

On this walk we will learn about a hospital that has provided healthcare on the same site for almost 900 years; London’s oldest parish church; a monastery that became an aristocratic Tudor mansion then an almshouse and school and remains an almshouse today; a priory with links to Jerusalem which gave its name to St John Ambulance eight hundred years later; and a nunnery which inspired the design of one of Clerkenwell’s newest buildings.

The walk will finish at the Clerk’s Well which gave the area its name; the site where parish clerks used to perform mystery plays in medieval times.

Note the walk does not include interior visits.

The walk will last about 90 minutes and will start and finish at Farringdon Station.

This walk is part of the Islington Festival of Walks, celebrating the guided walks available in the borough.

Numbers are restricted and social distancing requirements will be followed during the walk.

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Time

(Saturday) 14:00 - 16:30

Location

Farringdon Underground

39 Cowcross Street, London, EC1M 6BY